Dahle Communication

Too Busy? Try to set aside some time.

Over the past couple of months, I have been crazy busy! Working on research projects, helping create speeches/presentations and working with the Washington High School debate teams has pretty much filled up my days. Because of this, my blog here has taken the brunt of the hit because I have not updated it since Feb. 9th!

What I've come to realize is that I have to set aside some time each week to put my thoughts on communication down on this website. I find it very valuable and I hope you find the information that I share valuable as well. So, from now on I am setting aside at least an hour each week to make sure I post here.

This is something that you can use to become a better speaker. A lot of us realize the importance of being a better speaker, but we don't take the time to actually work on it! Take some time each week to practice your speeches or speaking style. You can break it up however you want. For example, one week work on your gestures, the next, enunciation, and so on and so forth.

Setting aside time is important. It ensures that we stay focused and don't loose out on something important.

-Travis

Why I wear an eye patch!

I wear an Eyepatch because of the presentations that I have seen have caused me to stab myself in the eye so I didn't have to see half of the presentation.

What caused this to happen: three things really:

1) People who put their entire speech on their slides then read it word for word

2) So many bullet points that I can only imagine that their enter button must automatically get hit every four words

and 

3) People who talk like they clearly don't care about the speech....so why are you even talking.

That's why I wear an eyepatch, and that's why I'm hooked. Are you?

Slide Handouts - a quick guide

I have always felt that slide presentation handouts were a bad idea. Your intentions might be good, but as the saying goes, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." The idea is a good one: you want your audience to follow along. You want to make sure that they take down some notes because your information is THAT important.

However, disaster soon ensues because here is what usually happens: you hand out your presentation, and I read through it in about 2 minutes while you are still on your first slide. I then become bored with your presentation because I have already read through it. Am I a bad person for doing this? Probably, but it is what 95% of your audience is doing.

So, what to do? You want to give a presentation people will pay attention to, but you also want to give them something that will make sense when they are going through it on their own. You need to do two things:

1) Create a presentation, that as David S. Rose in Presentation Zen Design states is "completely incapable of standing by themselves." When you keep this in mind, you will hopefully avoid putting too much text and graphs in your presentation and give a presentation that people will listen to.

2) Prepare a 2nd presentation that you can leave behind AFTER you give your presentation. This 'deck' that you leave behind can include all of the important information that you covered in your speech, but you didn't have written down. It should be similar in style and structure as your delivered presentation, but with more information on it that they can look at.

The important part is that people listen to your speech - which they won't if you put everything into your presentation. It doesn't take much extra work, but it will lead to much bigger results.

The following images is an example. A client of mine wanted to explain what Querencia was. He originally had it written out word for word what he was going to say on his slide (which had a bad background color on it as well). We changed his presentation on this slide to have an image that supports what he was going to say and then created a deck that he would then handout that had the information on it. This way people would stay focused on him instead of reading the text on the screen - yet they would be able to take the deck home with them and still understand what was said.

 

 

Hook: The Presentation Conference

I am quite excited about an event that is coming up on March 25th and March 26th that I have been invited to be a part of - Hook: The Presentation Conference.

Scott Schwertly at Ethos 3 is putting together what looks like an amazing conference. If you go to their website you'll see how lofty their goals are (and I say lofty, but they are definately achieveable). This is what you should expect:

Arrive. Have your mind blown. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Weep. Depart.

Sounds like a good time to me.

Keynote speakers include:

Gary Vaynerchuk

Scott Stratten

Michael Hyatt

Additionally, there are going to be several presentation experts speaking as well - which include:

Nat Robinson

Geetesh Bajaj

C.C. Chapman

Scott Schwertly

Olivia Mitchell

Garth Johnson

Jon Thomas

Dave Delaney

and as I mention before, yours truly.

I'm quite excited to be speaking with such a great group of leaders in the presentation world. If you are looking for a conference that will help you in whatever field you are in - this is one you should look at. I'm not just saying that because I'm going to be a part of it either. Besides, you get to hang out in Nashville, TN - believe me, it is much more than just country music!

I hope to see you there - if you have signed up, drop me a line and let me know what you'd like to see. I would like some information on what people are looking for before I finish up my presentation - that way you can get more out of it.

 

15 Minutes - Including Q & A - A Book Review

Many of us have seen lousy presentations after lousy presentations. I am sure most of you have asked a simple question: "Why are these presentations so bad?" Well, there are a lot of reasons to be sure. I am sure that I could fill an entire blog post just listing the problems with PowerPoints - which I would have to do in bullet format of course.

There are a lot of people trying to change this however: Duarte Design, Garr Reynolds, Sticky Slides, your truly, Joey Asher and many others.

Joey Asher though has an interesting idea that he is trying to get people to believe in. His concept: no presentation should last longer than 15 minutes - and that includes the Q & A time as well. Revolutionary? probably. Will people do it? Maybe.

The book itself is quite short and to the point - which is exactly what Joey wants all of us to do with our presentations. However, the effectiveness of it is its simplicity. He breaks down exactly how to put together a 7 minute presentation and how to prepare for the Q & A at the end.

I'm almost wondering if Joey did Extemporaneous speaking as a high school student because his method is exactly what I have taught my students for the past 10 years:

1. Start with a hook

2. Give a preview of your main points (keep it to three)

3. Body of the speech

4. Review

5. Call to action

It's a great way to make sure your point gets across to your audience. Joey breaks it down a little bit more than I just did, but I don't want to give away all of his good tips and suggestions.

He goes through each area and helps you figure out how to take a presentation that used to be a long-winded, soul-crushing event to a short, persuasive and effective presentation.

If you are having trouble shortening your presentations then I would highly recommend picking up this book. It not only will teach you a lot of key ideas, but it is something that you can also keep with you for a reference guide in case you need some help.

The only question really is - will people have the gumption to follow his suggestions? It's a long shot, but one I'm hopeful for.

Get off line to get some perspective - and work done

 Over the past few days I have been without the internet at work. Needless to say it means that I have not been able to check my e-mail as often as I would like (sadly I don't have a blackberry) and I have been off of most social networking sites except for at random intervals or in the evenings when I get a chance.

I thought I might go crazy at first, but I have also found myself highly productive. There have been numerous things on my to-do list that just kept getting pushed aside until these past few days. I've been able to knock out a lot of those items on the list and get some work done on topics I wasn't sure I would be able to get to until sometime this summer.

While I have missed some of the banter that I am sure is occurring on Twitter, I don't feel as left out as I thought I would. In fact, not being able to get on-line at will has been a bit of a refresher for me and has been quite nice.

Sometimes we need a change in our routine to get a little perspective back into our lives. A lot of times, we try to stick to what we always do, fearing what would happen if we changed. Unfortunately, this is usually to the detriment of ourselves. How can we get better if we just keep doing things the same way we always did them? The answer is: we can't.

The message for communication is clear - don't just rely on what you currently are doing or have done in the past. Make sure to take a step back and analyze a few things. Are your intros really that good? Can the language used be sharpened more? Do my visuals in the PowerPoint actually make sense? A lot of times we think we know the answers to these and other questions, but a lot of times we don't have the perspective needed to see the problems.

So, my advice to all of you is to take a day or two, and if you can, shut off your computer for a good portion of the day. I know this may not be practical for some of you, but a good banishment from the web can be a good thing (even though I complained about it on Twitter). As for your speeches, take a step back and try to get a fresh look at your speeches and presentations. Are they really doing what you want them to do - or is it just what you've always done. A fresh pair of eyes can do nothing but help.

Ingite comes to South Dakota

Last month Brett Duncan over at Marketing In Progress reminded me of an event that I had found earlier, Ignite. Ignite is "a geek event in over 100 cities worldwide. At the events, Ignite presenters share their personal and professional passions, using 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minutes." 

I love the concept of Ignite. You get 5 minutes and 20 slides that will automatically move every 15 seconds, which means you have to be prepared and you can't ramble on. Their tag-line is "Enlighten Us, But Make It Quick." 

 While most cities have been doing Ignite events, Scott and John Meyer at 9 Clouds, Inc in Sioux Falls decided to do something a little different - Ignite South Dakota - a State-wide project. This makes sense on several levels. First, with a total population of around 800,000 people, the State of South Dakota is about 1/3 the size of Dallas, TX who just had their Ignite last month. Second, this will allow smaller towns like Brookings, SD to showcase some of their talent when they might not have otherwise had that opportunity. Finally, South Dakotans are a big family. You've heard of six degrees of separation, but in South Dakota, it really is 1 degree of separation. Because of this, when I travel, I usually just say I am from South Dakota, since few people know where Sioux Falls is anyway.

I'm excited for Ignite getting started here in South Dakota. I think it is a great way for the talented people here in the Dakotas to showcase that talent here and on the web (which I am sure their videos will appear). 

So, if you are in the Brookings area on Wednesday April 21st, come on down and hear some great speakers. They include Megan Dahle of Mt. Jono & First Person History (and my wife!), Corey Heidelberger from Madville Times and an overall talented writer, speaker and artist, Johnathan Burns who has created Cubicons and is one of the funiest people I have ever met and many others. The full list can be seen at the Ignite South Dakota website. Below is a video from John Meyer with a Welcome to Ignite SD.

Welcome to Ignite SD from 9 Clouds on Vimeo.

Dilbert mocks bad PowerPoints

Saw this cartoon today and had to share it. If you read Dilbert you know that Scott Adams has been spending several years lampooning the business world and all that is wrong with it. Here, he takes a humorous look at PowerPoint presentations and how bad they can be. Enjoy.